USPS on 12 April 201 issued the first installment of the .49 cent Civil War Sesquicentennial stamps. Cancellation postmark originated from Charleston, South Carolina. Two sites were chosen: Battle of Fort Sumter and The Battle of First Bull. Ashton Potter Printing printed a total of 60,000,000 self-adhesive stamps, using a lithograph method.
In 1861, years of heated rhetoric reached a climax and the nation spiraled into Civil War. An anti-slavery President occupied the White House, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state, and eleven states seceded from the Union. Men young and old were intoxicated by their desire to go to battle and eager to defend their principles. As Civil War divided the nation, the South was further divided by neighboring states holding Union and Confederate loyalties. West Virginia emerged as a new Union state, although as in many regions, sympathies varied greatly from one town to another. Union and Confederate armies assembled, often made of men with more passion than experience. Many officers were friends and former West Point classmates, including Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the opposing leaders at Fort Sumter.While Fort Sumter marked the beginning of the conflict, the bloodshed at the First Battle of Bull Run made the nation face the somber reality of a lengthy war and the widespread suffering it would inflict.
Battle of Fort Sumter
After years of heated debate over slavery and states’ rights, calls for war reached a fevered pitch in the fall of 1860 when Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election. Seven Southern states, including South Carolina, seceded from the Union before Lincoln’s inauguration. The states seized four federal forts within their borders. The new Confederate States of America sent delegates to the nation’s capital to offer payment and negotiate a peace treaty, but they were turned away.As war loomed, the federal government planned to stockpile provisions at Fort Sumter, which was located in South Carolina’s strategic Charleston Harbor. Attempts at diplomacy failed, and on April 12, 1861, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard ordered his men to fire on Fort Sumter. Major Robert Anderson surrendered his command of Fort Sumter to the Confederacy after a 34-hour barrage. In response, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteer soldiers, four additional Southern states seceded, and the Civil War began.
Both the Union and the Confederacy predicted a short war and an easy victory in the days following the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Impatient Northerners pushed President Lincoln to attack the Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia.On July 16, 1861, Brigadier General Irvin McDowell gathered 35,000 untrained Union soldiers and marched toward Richmond. The men traveled two days through sweltering heat before reaching Centreville, Virginia, where they rested and regrouped.In nearby Manassas Junction, an equally inexperienced Confederate army of 34,000 men waited, protecting the vital supply line to Richmond. On July 21, 1861, the two armies met near Bull Run River in the first major land battle of the Civil War. Congressional families gathered to picnic nearby. A Confederate brigade commanded by Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson held its ground at the Battle of Bull Run. The Union army suffered heavy casualties and was forced to retreat. Sobered by the violence, the nation readied for a long war.
Source: Mystic Stamps
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